Lesbian, Gay, Trans-gender, Bi-Sexual are titles that i feel our community has adopted to make us all come together as a collective so we are mobilized in the fight for acceptance, equal rights and fair treatment. I am proud to align myself with those categories while recognizing really that for me...it doesn't really cover it! Mainly because i am still growing, still developing an understanding of who I am and how I came to be this person.

In 2009, a group of gay black people in the United Kingdom came together and formed Justice for Gay Africans (JfGA), a pressure group to contribute to the many struggles by very many brave brothers and sisters in the mother country.

Also, that contribution was to recognise the immense wonderful works being done outside the predominantly black countries that most of which criminalized homosexuality. While the fights go on in the affected countries, campaigners and activists in the international arena are doing their best to help and their contribution can never be ignored.

On the international scene therefore, these activists have been showing an immense compassion and dedication to a problem that would rather not have worried them. However, they faced a major problem: ‘where are the people you are talking of?’ seem to be the question they get asked by both homophobic African leaders and even sympathetic allies in the West.

In June 2009, the then Foreign Minister of Nigeria told a UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR) that there are no gay or lesbian people in [from] Nigeria. And prior to that, the immediate former President of Nigeria was also very famous for arguing that gay black people do not exist and that "homosexuality is unbiblical”. The dictatorial president of Zimbabwe is no different. He is notorious for saying that homosexuality is a Western disease. The records can go on.

In hindsight, this group of gay black men and women in London realised that to add weight to the work done by all and sundry, we the very subjects of debate need to be visible.

Godwyns Onwuchekwa who then worked in the background through blogging, and joining in protest formulated the idea. By lobbying the Law Society of England and Wales to pitch to a delegate of the Nigerian Bar Association in October 2009, Godwyns was advised by the Law Society of England and Wales to form an organisation to add weight to his lobbying. In the unfolding event of this, the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill was tabled.

Godwyns continued through letters to Members of Parliament (MPs), Members of European Parliament (MEPs), UK Government Ministers, UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, African Embassies and High Commissions in London and the Commonwealth Secretariat. The one advice that followed another is: form an organisation to be taken serious. African Embassies though did not respond with either advice or acknowledgement.

With more campaigns and protest setting up against the Ugandan Bill, African lesbian and gay people were more than ever, needed to be visible to join the fight and make the issue more human, from this end. This gave birth to the Justice for Gay Africans (JfGA).

Since then, JfGA has been involved in many discussions and the question ‘where are the people you are talking of’ is now disappearing from the table. In fact, a major campaign was the persistence of JfGA in pushing the Commonwealth Secretariat to publicly condemn criminalization of homosexuality in its member-states.

It was as this visibility became clear that the Commonwealth finally opened its doors for the first time to welcome a group of Lesbian Gay Bisexual & Trangendered (LGBT) people for a discussion. That response followed a protest held in front of the Commonwealth Secretariat in London mainly organised by Peter Tatchell with JfGA featuring and most speakers being black gay and lesbian people. It was after that protest, which was in relation to the prosecution of two men in Malawi, that the Commonwealth saw that the ‘people directly affected’ are there and making a demand.

Justice for Gay Africans is working to increase this visibility and to encourage gay black people to be proud and confident of themselves. In the long run, JfGA hopes to one day provide support to the community and to the wider black community in the UK especially to disappointed parents and family. To support them and be able to answer those confusing question.

JfGA is focused on three areas to;

1.       Campaign for decriminalization through engaging in and discussing the issue with stakeholders and allies and making sure the issue remains on the tables where it matters.

2.       Encourage visibility amongst gay black men and women and provide support through mentorship and assurance against isolation and leadership.

3.       Be a platform for gay black people to use to challenge the myths that often surrounds their lives.

JfGA also wants to change the fight from a mostly reactive to a proactive game. By seeking to discuss the issue with decision-makers and keeping it on the table, we hope to gradually contribute to a peaceful change and answer the myths surrounding homosexuality. We hope to bring the reality of our contribution as individuals and members of the community to the fore. That will show that we are not just gay people but people who are part of and contribute to the society just like any other.

Finally, we also hope to change the tradition of only waking up when there is trouble or threat. This attitude tend to portray us as being happy with the status quo: decriminalisation; We are not. By raising and discussing the issues persistently and consistently, we would feed into strategies and policies that would work towards a better understanding for full change.

JfGA is presently run with no funding of any type but Godwyns’ personal finance. So it is able to only do as much as he can afford which is not great. The organisation is not founded to make money but to show leadership and to disprove the myth that gay black people are non-existent , not proud and not real. At the moment, JfGA is run by a group of highly professional people including directors, university lecturers, clergies, artists, etc. These men and women contribute their time and skills wholly free to keep this struggle alive and well formulated.

We work closely with prominent universities in the UK, politicians, other civil societies and LGBT groups. We feature in high level conferences, workshops, seminars, meetings and are looking for more people to represent us at these places.

Godwyns in a proficient public speaker, a blogger, an ardent political commentator and activist and can support anyone to do the same. So if you are worried about being in a meeting with highly important people or speaking at a seminar, there is support from Godwyns and the entire group to help you do that.

If you would like to be involved in anyway, please contact JfGA by sending an email to news@jfga.org.uk. We hold meetings every 6 – 8 weeks in a central London venue to discuss issues affecting the community and how we can make the best impact. You can be part of this meeting, it is open to any supporter, gay or straight.

Visit the website at www.jfga.org.uk for more info. And to show your support, join our facebook page by clicking here.

Justice for Gay Africans

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what we gay people ask for is respect and a peaceful co-existence not anyone's endorsement. 

Equal right for all

We've come across some pretty great blogs recently that help to promote the visibility and comaraderie of LGBTQ people.  Check out:

http://borngaybornthisway.blogspot.com/

http://www.itgetsbetter.org/